Some Pretty Bad Things
by AgentRez
Summary: The back story of Tony's life since we thought he died in season 5. Also a little bit of a Jack/Audrey story, in an odd way. Chapter 1 has been completely rewritten to incorporate the promise Tony made in the 2 PM episode of season 7.
1. Chapter 1

_This part replaces the original first chapter of this story, based on recent developments on the show. I decided to rewrite it because the 2 PM episode gave me an opening to work my story into the events of the day. Instead of taking place as part of the 11 AM episode, this now takes place at the end of the day. The threats have been averted and Tony is prepared to make good on his promise to Jack and turn himself in._

_I hope it's not too confusing...I just decided the original first chapter did not work and last night's episode gave me a better opening. The story of what Tony did has not changed, just the setting in which he is telling Jack. The main point of this story is to attempt to explain how a good guy like Tony could get involved with Emerson's crew, and to tell the back story of the time between seasons 5 and 7 now that we know Tony was alive the whole time._

* * *

Jack, Tony and Chloe are boxing up "Rogue CTU" while they wait for Bill to come pick them up to take Tony to FBI headquarters.

"Alright, we'll come outside in a minute," Jack says into the phone.

"It doesn't seem fair that you still have to go back to jail after everything you've accomplished today," Chloe says in typical Chloe fashion.

"It is what it is," Tony replies. "Thanks again for all your help...you can be a pain in the ass but we couldn't have done it without you," he says, looking up for the first time.

"You're welcome," she responds. She walks over and gives Tony a hug.

"Take care of yourself, Chloe, alright?" Tony says.

"I will. You too," she responds.

Jack hangs up and glances over at Tony.

"You ready?" Jack asks softly. Tony nods slowly, looking down, and reluctantly follows Jack to the stairs.

They step outside "rogue CTU" and walk toward Bill's van. Bill is on the phone in the driver's seat. Jack gets in the vehicle but notices Tony lingering back.

"Come on, Tony. We've got to go," Jack says gently.

"Yeah, I know. Just give me a sec," Tony says, glancing around one more time, trying to take in what freedom is like before turning himself in. After a few moments he climbs into the van, blinking back tears as he stares out the window.

"Alright, thanks again," Bill says before hanging up the phone. He turns around toward Jack and Tony.

"Jack, I just talked to Renee. She said she would meet you guys at Teaism over on 8th Street. That way you can take Tony to have some real food and the two of you can talk. She'll take Tony back with her when you're done."

"Bill, I appreciate it, but I'd rather just get this over with," Tony says quietly.

"If that's what you prefer I'll take you there now," Bill says to Tony. "But I think you and Jack should have a chance to talk before you go."

"I already told you everything I did. Can't you just fill Jack in?"

"Yes, I can, and I will if you want me to. But the two of you have been friends for years...I think you'll both be better off if you tell him yourself."

"It's up to you, Tony," Jack says softly.

Tony sighs. The thought of telling Jack everything he's done makes him more nauseous even than the thought of going back to prison, but deep down he knows Bill is right.

"I guess you're right," he says after a minute. "Besides, I am pretty hungry," he admits.

They get into Bill's van and Bill drives them a few blocks to the restaurant. Renee meets them outside. She is holding a GPS ankle bracelet.

"I'm sorry to do this, but Agent Moss wanted me to put this on you just in case," she tells Tony.

"Is that really necessary?" Bill asks.

"I told him I didn't think so, but I was overruled," she says.

"It's fine," Tony says. "That way I won't...I won't even be tempted to run," he admits. Jack smiles sympathetically.

He puts the bracelet on his ankle and then follows Jack into the restaurant. They sit down and order, and then there is an awkward silence, neither knowing where to begin.

"Listen, Jack, I know that you're going to be disgusted when I tell you some of the things I've done and I don't blame you for that," Tony says after a minute. "But I just want you to know that I get it. I get that some of the things I did were wrong and that my actions have consequences, and I'm probably going to spend the rest of my life in jail for it. So I don't blame you if you get angry with me, but please try not to lecture me, alright?"

"Fair enough," Jack agrees.

* * *

_From there the story continues onto the next chapter, which is pretty much the same as before. All of the future chapters will now take place as part of this conversation instead of as snippets between missions. Otherwise, the next three chapters are basically the same as before. I'll have a new chapter up soon that continues the back story of Tony's life between seasons 5 and 7, as recounted to Jack during this conversation at the end of Day 7. At the end I will address the issue many of us are wondering about after last night, whether Tony will really turn himself in and what will happen if he does._


	2. Chapter 2

_I rewrote the first chapter, so this now takes place after the events of Day 7 have subsided. To recap, following Bill's advice, Jack took Tony to a restaurant to have a last taste of real food and give him a chance to tell Jack his whole story before he turns himself in. This chapter now takes place right after the last one.  
_

* * *

"I don't even know where to begin," Tony says.

"Start at the beginning," Jack encourages. "What's the first thing you remember after you woke up away from CTU?"

Tony takes a deep breath before he begins to answer.

"The beginning part is a little blurry, but I vaguely remember waking up at one point and hearing someone tell me to relax, then telling someone else to sedate me. I don't know how much time went by but hours later I woke up in an unfamiliar warehouse somewhere that was probably an hour or two outside LA. I was confused and disoriented and for a second I thought maybe the entire day was just a really bad dream. But my injuries were still there, and they had the news on so it became clear pretty quickly that it wasn't."

* * *

_**FLASHBACK**_

_Tony wakes up on a cot in a large warehouse, clearly disoriented. He looks around and has no idea where he is. He closes his eyes again, hoping that maybe the last 24 hours were just a bad dream and if he goes back to sleep he'll wake up safe at home next to Michelle again. But the scars on his face start to sting, and he opens his eyes and feels his face and it becomes clear that it wasn't all just a dream. He still does not know where he is, but he hears the news on a nearby TV, so he gravitates toward it in hopes of figuring out what the hell is going on._

_"It began this morning with the assassination of former President David Palmer," the anchor is saying on TV. Tony's stomach lurches as hearing this confirms that it was all real._

_

* * *

_

"Until I heard that on the news, I was holding out hope that it was all just a nightmare," Tony tells Jack.

"I know the feeling," Jack says sympathetically.

* * *

_Tony looks around and tries to get his bearings about._

_"Tony, you're up," an unfamiliar British-sounding voice calls out. Tony turns and sees a tall skinny man with grayish hair approaching him._

_"Who the hell are you?" he demands._

_"Name's David Emerson," the guy says jovially. He extends a hand, which Tony shakes warily._

_"You're probably wondering how you got here, right?" Emerson asks._

_"Among other things, yeah," Tony replies._

_"No problem. I'll answer all your questions. What's the last thing you remember?"_

_Tony thinks for a minute, struggling to piece it together. "I was at CTU, and I was in the same room with the bastard who killed my wife. I was going to kill him but for some reason I hesitated...I was holding a needle with poisonous chemicals and I was about to inject him but for some reason I couldn't do it...then the next thing I know I was on the floor and sharp waves of pain were going through my body...for some reason I think my friend Jack was there at some point..."_

_"Jack Bauer?"_

_"Yeah, do you know him?"_

_"Heard the name."_

_"Is he here? I need to talk to him."_

_"Nah, nobody knows where he is."_

_"What are you talking about?" Tony demands._

_"Disappeared a few hours ago. He told his girlfriend he'd be right back and then he was gone. Apparently he told the president earlier today he would disappear again when this was all over...at least, that's what the government wants us to believe. I think what's happened today proves you can't trust anything the government says or does."_

_"You mean because of Christopher Henderson?"_

_Emerson chuckles._

_"What's so funny?" Tony snaps._

_"Sorry, Tony, I forgot you'd been asleep the past few hours. This goes way beyond Christopher Henderson. What happened today goes all the way up to the President."_

_"What???"_

_"See for yourself," Emerson says, taking the TV off mute._

_"President Charles Logan is expected to announce his resignation within the hour. It's unclear at this point whether he'll face criminal charges for his alleged role in the assassination of former President David Palmer."_

_"What the hell? You're telling me President Logan ordered the attack on David Palmer?"_

_"It looks that way, yeah. Or it looks like he knew about it and didn't stop it, at the very least. He staged the shooting at the airport this morning to try to give him an excuse to invoke the terms of the treaty he signed with Subarov. David Palmer found out about it and that's why they killed him. They went after you and your wife to try to provide a distraction, a cover story for why he was killed."_

_"So you're telling me the bastards who killed my wife report to the president???" Tony asks with disbelief._

_"Looks that way, yeah," Emerson says with a sigh. "I knew the government was corrupt but until today I had no idea it was this corrupt. It makes what we're doing feel that much better."_

_"What the hell are you doing? Who are you, and how did I get here?" Tony demands._

_"Relax, Tony, one question at a time. I told you before, my name's David. That guy over there by the computer is Tom, and that's Morgan over there. I've got a few other guys out on assignment, but they should be back soon."_

_"What do you mean, out on assignment? Is this some covert military unit or something?"_

_"Not exactly, no. It's an independent operation...all of us are ex-government or military who have been screwed over by the government just like you."_

_"So what, you plan missions to get revenge?"_

_"Sometimes. Depends what our clients want. Or sometimes we take on missions on our own...we're working up a plan to make sure Logan is held accountable for what he did today."_

_"Who are your clients?"_

_"It varies. Independent groups, governments, individuals within the government who have other agendas. You'll be amazed when you see how much corruption there is, how many of the people you've reported to over the years when you thought you were serving your country had other objectives."_

_"Is that why you brought me here? You thought I'd want to help with your illegal business to get revenge?"_

_"I wouldn't quite put it like that, but I have been watching you for a while, and after what happened today I thought you'd make a good recruit."_

_"Yeah? Well, I'm not interested," Tony says, and starts to walk toward the door._

_"Where are you going to go?" Emerson asks. _

_"Back to CTU...I'm going to help them find Jack and find out what the hell is going on."_

_"That's a mistake, Tony. You go back there, and they're not going to tell you anything. They know you tried to kill Henderson earlier and they won't trust you near any of their information knowing you might use it to go on a personal vendetta. You'll have a much better chance of being able to find Jack and take care of the people who are responsible for your wife's death if you stay here."_

_"Why's that?"_

_"Because aside from us, everyone thinks you're dead," Emerson says with a grin._

_

* * *

_

"After that he explained how he'd brought me there, and he encouraged me to at least hang out for a few days while I recovered, and to see how things played out with Logan and whether you turned up," Tony explains to Jack. "I started to walk away but I had no idea where I was, and I was still in pretty bad shape physically from the car bomb and the chemicals Henderson injected me with, and I realized I was in no shape to go anywhere. And as far as I could tell you were gone, and I didn't know who else I could trust."

Jack sighs. He knows it's not his fault that he was on a boat on the way to China, but he can't help but feel bad for not being there for his friend, just as he felt bad for telling Audrey he'd be right back and having to break that promise.

"So after a few days, what happened?" Jack asks.

"After a few days it became clear that Logan was barely going to pay for his crimes. As the reality of Michelle's death started to sink in I was consumed with rage...I kept watching the news and hearing them whitewash Logan's crimes and they had people actually claiming that he was just doing what he thought was best for the country and that he was forced to resign because of partisan political maneuvering, if you can believe that. It was more than I could take and I was determined to make Logan pay for what he did to me and to the country. Like he said before, Emerson listened to me, and he understood. He had lost most of his men in Afghanistan because the US government refused to provide intelligence to the SAS, so he knew what it was like to feel betrayed by people you'd devoted your life to serving. All of the other guys on the crew had similar stories of getting screwed by the government in one way or another. So I stuck around because I didn't have anywhere else to go, and I guess it was comforting being around people who understood on some level what I was going through. Meanwhile, Emerson started working on a plan to get us inside Logan's retreat."

"What, you were going to take out Logan yourself when it became clear he wasn't going to jail?"

"I almost did, Jack. Emerson gave me a fake ID and uniform for one of the Secret Service agents assigned to the roof and I was in position to take him out with a sniper. Morgan was impersonating another Secret Service agent and he buzzed the Secret Service agent who was with Logan to try to distract him. But just as I took the shot the agent with Logan turned and saw the bullet coming and got in the way, so I ended up killing him instead. I managed to get away but I was shaking...I knew what I did was wrong and when I got back I told Emerson I wanted out, but by that point he had a new job that he knew I'd be interested in."

"What job was that?" Jack asks in an interrogating manner.

Tony looks away, nervous about how Jack is going to react to the next part.

"Emerson had gotten a lead from a contact who claimed to have information about where you were. In exchange he wanted some information from DOD about Russian nuclear technology."

"And one of your crew members was former DOD and able to get it for him?" Jack asks suspiciously.

"Not exactly, Jack." Tony hesitates, knowing Jack's not going to like what he has to say next. "He thought I could convince Audrey to give him what he wanted if it would lead to information about where you were."

"Hold on a second," Jack says with a mixture of anger, fear, and disbelief. "You're telling me Audrey knew you were still alive?"

"Yeah," Tony says quietly, looking away. His tone makes it clear that Jack isn't going to be happy when he hears the rest of the story.

* * *

_Like it so far? Hate it? Either way, please let me know. I'll try to have more of this up sometime this week, so stay tuned._


	3. Chapter 3

_I rewrote the first chapter, so this now takes place after the events of Day 7 have subsided. To recap, following Bill's advice, Jack took Tony to a restaurant to have a last taste of real food and give him a chance to tell Jack his whole story before he turns himself in. This chapter now takes place right after the last one._

_

* * *

_

_**FLASHBACK: 6 MONTHS AFTER SEASON 5**_

_Tony has just returned to Emerson's warehouse after the failed attempt to take out former President Logan. He is visibly shaken up. Emerson gets off the phone and approaches him._

_"Tanner confirmed that you weren't followed. I hacked in and modified the Secret Service report, so hopefully that'll keep them busy for a while. Did you ever take off your helmet?"_

_"No," Tony says absent-mindedly, still shook up._

_"And you used the gloves when you knocked out the other agent?"_

_"Yeah."_

_"Alright, then you should be in the clear. But I don't understand why you didn't take the second shot...after you took out the Secret Service agent you had a clear shot at Logan."_

_"I don't know...I just lost my nerve...I didn't want to kill anyone besides Logan...I thought I could go through with this but I don't know...I don't think I can do this anymore..."_

_"Tony, you can't just go back to your former life now. If you do that people will wonder where you've been...how are you going to explain why you've been missing for the past six months, and how someone else is buried in your tombstone?"_

_"Then I won't go back. I just need a fake ID and I'll go somewhere and start over...and you don't have to worry about me talking to the authorities. There's no way I'd be able to cut a deal given the politics of the situation."_

_"What politics?" Emerson asks._

_"When David Palmer granted me a pardon on his last day in office it caused a bit of an uproar politically. Wayne Palmer was his chief of staff at the time. Now that Wayne's running for president if it came out that I turned up and had killed a Secret Service agent since I got out of prison it would be the end of his campaign...since the attorney general works for the man Palmer's trying to replace you can bet that they'd love to put me back in jail and whack him for whatever role he played in letting me out in the first place. So you can let me go and you don't have to worry about me going to the authorities. Or if you don't believe me go ahead and kill me...honestly I really don't care anymore," he says glumly._

_"Tony, relax. Nobody's going to kill you. If you want to leave nobody's going to stop you, but before you decide anything I've got something you might be interested in."_

_"What's that?" Tony says in an exasperated tone._

_"I got a call the other day from someone who says they have information about where your friend Jack is."_

_"What the hell? Who is this person and why would they contact you?"_

_"Because he knew you were working with me. He says he works for Jack's father...I had it checked out and he looks legit. He says he has some contacts in Southeast Asia who he might be able to cut a deal to get more information from. But he needs some information from DOD to make a trade with."_

_

* * *

_

"Stop right there. The source you were using claimed to work for my father?" Jack demands.

"Yeah. At that point I suspected that the same people who were responsible for Michelle's death were involved with your disappearance, but I had no idea that members of your own family were involved with all that."

"You didn't check this guy out first?"

"Of course we checked him out, Jack. We confirmed that he worked for your father and that he had what appeared to be legitimate business dealings with the Chinese. Some things looked a little sketchy but from what we could find it looked like your father was trying to work some back channels to get you back the same way we were. I know you hadn't been close with your father and I was a little suspicious, but I didn't think he actually wanted you to be tortured in a Chinese prison. Hell, my father told me I was dead to him the day I was convicted of treason and I don't even think he'd want that for me."

Jack sighs, realizing Tony has a point.

"So if he wanted information from DOD why did he contact you? Why didn't he contact Audrey directly?"

"I asked that same question, Jack."

* * *

_**RESUME FLASHBACK**_

_"I never worked for DOD," Tony says skeptically. "I have no idea how to get into their system even if I wanted to."_

_"No, but Jack's girlfriend does. And it looks like she still hasn't given up looking for him even though everyone keeps telling her he disappeared on his own."_

_"We don't know that he didn't," Tony replies. "And there's no way in hell Audrey would give up sensitive national security information no matter what it was for. When I worked with her at CTU that day she was getting upset over protocol violations."_

_"Yeah, and don't you remember how much she regretted the way she acted towards Jack that day? Don't you remember her telling you after Jack disappeared that it was all her fault for not being convincing enough when the Chinese questioned her?"_

_"How the hell do you know what she said to me after Jack disappeared two years ago?"_

_"I have my sources. I told you, I've been keeping tabs on you for a while."_

_"Fine. So even if Audrey was willing to do this, why do they need me? Why not just approach her directly?"_

_"Because, you saved her life two years ago, Tony. You talked to her after she thought Jack was dead and tried to make her feel less guilty. You called her a few times after Jack disappeared the first time to see how she was doing. She knows you, and she trusts you. She's more likely to go along with this if the request comes from someone she trusts."_

_"So what, you just want me to call her and ask her if she's willing to give up classified information in hopes of finding more information about Jack?"_

_"You can't call her. You've got to do it in person."_

_"And then what?"_

_"Then it depends what she says. If she says no you're free to walk away and do whatever you want with your life. If she agrees get back in touch and we'll help set it up."_

_"And what's in it for you?"_

_"I told you before, Tony...we're going to have to look out for each other, like brothers. That means not assuming an ulterior motive whenever I try to help you out. You're good at what you do and if you decide to stick around I could use your help on a few other projects coming through the pipeline. But you've got to stop being so suspicious of me...when have I ever given you any reason to doubt my motives?"_

_"You're right, I'm sorry. Right now I'm suspicious of everyone."_

_"Not a bad policy, especially in this business. But hopefully in time we'll be able to trust each other. But for now, I'll give you the information I have and you can do what you want with it. I can't give you the information about my source until after you talk to Audrey, because that was the deal I made with him. But I'll give you the information about what he wants from her and you can decide whether or not to talk to her. Like you said, she probably won't go along with it, but just telling her what this guy is trying to trade should give her a clue in her investigation about where he is."_

_"Yeah, I guess. But I don't know...when Jack disappeared the first time I promised him I'd keep an eye out for her. If I go to her with this information I could be putting her in danger."_

_"She's putting herself in danger already by nosing around as much as she is. Besides, you've got a lot of loyalty to Jack considering he was willing to put your wife in danger. Don't you think it's a little ironic?"_

_"It's not his fault," Tony says angrily. "The people who killed Michelle tried to set Jack up to take the fall for it, and I'm pretty sure they're the same people who either made him disappear again or got him captured. He's a victim just like me."_

_"Yeah, well, at least you recognize you're a victim. From what you tell me about Jack, I wouldn't be surprised if he came back and started right back working for the same government that keeps screwing him over."_

_"Yeah, maybe. But that's beside the point."_

_"Look, Tony, you said yourself, you think the same people who are behind Jack's disappearance were responsible for Michelle's death. So figuring out what happened to Jack might also help you get answers to your other questions. Besides, what do you have to lose? Even if Audrey doesn't want to help my contact find Jack at least she'll know he's still alive."_

_"Yeah, I guess you're right," Tony agrees. "Even if she doesn't want to go along with the plan I think I can trust her to keep my cover a secret, and either way maybe I can help her figure out what happened to Jack."_

_"What do you have to lose, right?" Emerson says._

_"Nothing," Tony says glumly. "I've got nothing left to lose anymore."_

_**

* * *

**_

No pressure, but if you have a minute to review I'd love to know what you think. Reviews keep me motivated to write more...please feel free to be honest whether you like it or not. More coming soon...hopefully before the next episode, since I'm always worried that something will come out on the show that contradicts my story.


	4. Chapter 4

_In addition to adding this new chapter, I rewrote the first chapter, so this now takes place after the events of Day 7 have subsided. To recap, following Bill's advice, Jack took Tony to a restaurant to have a last taste of real food and give him a chance to tell Jack his whole story before he turns himself in._

* * *

"So how did you contact Audrey without being detected?" Jack asks Tony.

"I put an anonymous note in under her door one day while she was at work telling her that I had information about where you were and she should come alone to pick up a passenger from a train getting into New Carrolton station at 12:01 AM. I wasn't sure if she was going to come...I feel like her father's first words when she came out of the womb were a lecture not to do something like that..."

"Did she have a gun with her at least?" Jack asks, thinking about how panicked he'd have been if he had known she was putting herself in risky situations like that.

"Yeah, she brought her gun, and she had one of her coworkers wait somewhere out of sight just in case. He was supposed to call her father if he couldn't reach her in a half an hour."

* * *

**_FLASHBACK: 6 MONTHS, 1 WEEK AFTER SEASON 5_**

_Audrey drives up to the platform at the train station in New Carrollton, Maryland, looking around nervously. She checks the anonymous typewritten note again to make sure she has the right place and time. She stares out the tinted windows of her car and checks to make sure her gun is still wedged between her body and the driver's side door. After a few minutes, a man approaches. He is wearing a coat with a hood and has a scarf wrapped around his mouth, using the cold weather as an excuse to stay unrecognizable._

_Audrey hesitates for a second, then nervously unlocks her door and lets the man in._

_"Give me your phone and PDA," the man demands. She quickly hands them over._

_"Now disable your GPS."_

_Once again, she does as she is told._

_"Now drive to the parking lot around the corner from here, at that office building on Corporate Drive," he instructs._

_"What's going on? Who are you?" she asks nervously, clutching her gun._

_"I'll explain in a second," he says in a voice that is no longer so threatening. In fact, Audrey could swear the voice sounds familiar. "Relax, I'm not here to hurt you. I just need to talk to you without anyone knowing. So I need you to get us out of sight."_

_"Okay," she agrees, and drives the few blocks to a corporate office park, which is empty at this time of night._

_"Who are you?" she asks again after she parks the car and turns the lights off._

_"Someone who's supposed to be dead," Tony answers, momentarily lifting his mask. Audrey stares at him with disbelief._

_"How..."_

_"How am I still alive?" Tony finishes for her. She nods._

_"It's a long story. Frankly, I don't even fully understand how I got out of CTU, but it doesn't really matter right now and it's best if you don't know the details anyway. But the bottom line is, fewer than a handful of people know I'm still alive, and if you want me to help you find Jack we need to keep it that way, do you understand?" Tony says firmly. Audrey nods, looking a little freaked out._

_"Do you know where Jack is?" she asks hopefully. "Please tell me you helped him escape again?"_

_"No, I wish. I was still unconscious when he went missing and as far as I can tell nobody's heard from him."_

_Audrey sighs, clearly disappointed._

_"Does he know you're alive?" she asks._

_"No, I don't think so."_

_"Everyone keeps telling me to give it up," she tells him. "My father, my coworkers, even Bill now thinks I could be doing more harm than good if I keep looking. They say Jack probably disappeared on his own and that I'm putting him in danger if I keep looking for him. Apparently earlier that day he had promised President Logan that he would disappear again when this was over. I'm afraid that my push to have Agent Spaulding investigated for shooting Jack two years ago may have unintentionally caused Logan's people to realize he was still alive and I don't want to make that same mistake again."_

_"Yeah, you were making us pretty nervous with your push to investigate the Secret Service agent who had orders to take him out," Tony admits._

_"I don't want to make that mistake again, but something just doesn't feel right here. When I went into the room where he got the phone call, the phone was off the hook," she says, trying to keep her composure as she recalls that awful day. Chloe swears she has no idea where he is and I believe her...if Jack was going to disappear wouldn't he have needed her help?"_

_"Possibly. It's possible he would have kept her in the dark to protect her after what happened to Michelle and me."_

_"Yeah, I guess. But why would he want to keep a promise to Logan after everything Logan had done?"_

_"Because that's the way Jack works. If he thought it was in the best interests of the country for him to disappear he would do it. To him a promise is a promise even if the circumstances change."_

_"But he promised me he'd be right back. Why would he say "I promise" if he planned on disappearing?"_

_"He wouldn't," Tony says with a sigh._

_"So you believe me?" she asks hopefully, feeling frustrated by all the people who have been blowing her off in her quest to figure out where Jack went._

_"Yeah, I do. Initially I was inclined to believe that he disappeared, but based on what you've told me as well as some evidence I've gathered on my own I'm inclined to think you're right that he was captured. And I think there are people inside the government who have an incentive to sweep this under the rug."_

_"What do you mean? Who?"_

_"The same people who killed my wife. The same people who killed David Palmer and tried to frame Jack for it. I don't have proof yet, but I'd bet you anything that if Jack promised Charles Logan he'd disappear again then Logan took steps to make sure he kept that promise."_

_"So if it was the Chinese, you think Logan's the one who tipped them off about Jack?"_

_"Wouldn't surprise me in the least," Tony says resentfully. "Him or someone who works for him. I don't have proof yet, but I have a feeling Jack disappearing is related to Michelle's murder and the assassination of David Palmer. And Logan may not be president anymore but he's still got plenty of friends in high places, many of whom may have been involved and have a vested interest in keeping this covered up. There may be some people like your father and Bill Buchanan who are telling you to give this up because they are genuinely concerned that you could blow Jack's cover if he was trying to disappear. But there are other people inside the government who have a whole other agenda. That's why you can't trust the government for anything. If you want to find Jack we're going to have to go through some back channels."_

_"Yeah, I've pretty much come to that conclusion, but I don't even know where to begin."_

_"That's why I came to talk to you. I may have a lead."_

_"What kind of a lead?" she asks tentatively._

_"I know someone who says he has some information...he says he works for Jack's father. He has some business contacts in Asia and he thinks he can get some information about Jack if he gives them something in return."_

_"I...I have some money. When Paul died he left me his stakes in all his companies. I know it may sound wrong given what happened but I'm prepared to use it to find Jack if I have to."_

_"Unfortunately, I don't think money is what he wants."_

_"What does he want?"_

_"Information about Russian nuclear developments."_

_"What kind of information?"_

_"I don't have all the details yet, but I think they want to know how close Russia is to developing a suitcase nuclear weapon and what technology we think is being used to develop it."_

_Audrey sighs, contemplating an impossible choice._

_"Tony, if I give you the information and this guy gives it to his source in China, what assurances do we have that it will lead to valid information about Jack?"_

_"We don't. I checked this guy out and it looks like he does work for Jack's father, but there's no guarantee his source will agree to the exchange or give us truthful information even if he is doing what he says he's trying to do."_

_"But if I don't go along with it, then there's no way we'll get any closer."_

_"Audrey, are you telling me you're actually considering this?" Tony asks incredulously._

_"Russia's new nuclear technology is an open secret. Any information I could get on it right now would just confirm what everyone already knows. And right now it's our only lead..."_

* * *

"Part of me felt like I should try to talk her out of it, but I couldn't," Tony explains to Jack. "I couldn't try to talk her out of it, because I knew..." he chokes up a little. "I knew that if I had even the faintest chance to get Michelle back I'd do anything and everything to get her back no matter how illegal or what the cost. So how could I tell Audrey not to do the same for you?"

Jack sighs, angry with Tony but sympathetic at the same time. He finds it hard to argue with Tony's logic as much as he wants to.

* * *

_"Listen, Audrey, you know my history," Tony says to her. "I'm the last person in the world who should be telling you what to do here. I just want to make sure you understand the risk. There's no guarantee that this will get us any closer to finding Jack, and I'm going to try to make it look like your system was hacked but if anyone ever found out you intentionally leaked information you could go to jail for it, and if it creates enough of a political shitstorm your father won't be able to protect you."_

_"I...I understand," she says, her voice becoming firmer as she continues. "But it's a risk I have to take. I already lost Jack once and I am not going to give up on him this time. As long as there is a chance he is still alive I am going to do whatever it takes to find him and I don't care how risky it is, do you understand?" she says with determination, her voice becoming almost militant towards the end._

_"Better than anyone," Tony says with a sigh. "And I want to find Jack as much as you do, and not just because he's my friend."_

_"What do you mean?"_

_"As I'm sure you know by now, Jack got a call from President Palmer after he raided the Chinese consulate saying he was going to be handed over. Then Palmer called again and told Jack that the Secret Service agent had orders to kill him instead. So Michelle and Chloe and I helped him escape and that's why they killed Michelle and tried to kill me when they needed a distraction to kill David Palmer. Knowing my wife was killed just to create a distraction is hard enough," Tony says, choking up a little. "But if the Chinese got Jack and they kill him or he spends the rest of his life in a Chinese prison Michelle will have died for nothing, and I can't let that happen. You can understand that, right?"_

_"Better than anyone," she says in turn. Tony smiles sympathetically, finding it comforting to talk to someone who really understands what he's going through._

_"So how is this going to work?" Audrey asks._

_"I've got an encrypted phone for you...I'll use it to get in touch when I have more information. I'll try to come up with a way for you to contact me in the future but for right now you've got to wait for my call. When I have more details about what we need we'll set up a time and place and make it look like a mugging. I'll grab your CAC card and then I need about 15 minutes before you can report it stolen. In the meantime I need you to familiarize yourself with whatever information there is on Russian nuclear developments and when we stage the mugging leave a few notes about it in your purse as if you were trying to remember something and wrote it down so I can find what I need quickly. I'll use one of your credit cards too so you can report that stolen and hopefully make it look like a "_

_Audrey nods, clearly a little uncomfortable but recognizing that Tony is trying to protect her. "Listen, Chloe's been helping me try to figure out what happened to Jack...Bill told her not to use anymore CTU resources to help me but she's been sneaking in after hours to see what she can find. Can I tell her you're still alive and that you're helping me?"_

_"No. You can't tell anyone I'm alive, not even Chloe. You can have her run a check on my contact, but tell her that you have an old friend from college who's helping you do some investigating off-book. And while you're at it, before we do this maybe you should see if she knows anything else about Jack's father."_

_"Why?" Audrey asks._

_"As far as I can tell his father is doing the same thing you're doing, working some back channels to try to find out where he is," Tony explains. "But I'm a little suspicious...I met Jack's family briefly at Teri's funeral and they seemed alright, but I don't think Jack was very close with his dad. What did he tell you about his relationship with his father?"_

_"Just that he and his dad haven't spoken in a while...he said that his father wanted him to take over the family business and was disappointed that he decided to join the military instead. He used to tell me I was lucky to have a father who was so overprotective," she says ruefully._

_"I think Jack mentioned something about a business-related dispute he had with his dad once but it was in the middle of an argument and I can't remember what he said...did he ever mention anything about that to you?"_

_"No, I don't think so...do you remember what you were arguing about? Maybe that will help jog your memory."_

_Tony sighs, obviously pained by the memory._

_"It was a few months after I got out of prison. Jack had just moved to DC to start working for your father, and he called to see how I was doing and to tell me that he had talked to someone who worked for a defense contractor who said he might be able to give me a job at their LA office. So I went to meet with the guy, but I found out that without a security clearance the jobs I could get there were a big step down from where I had been before I was arrested. I don't know what I expected, and I should have been appreciative that Jack was trying to help, but at the time I was too caught up in my wounded pride and self-pity to see it that way. Jack called back to see how the interview went and that's when we started arguing._

* * *

_**FLASH FURTHER BACK - 6 MONTHS AFTER SEASON 3**_

_**"Look, Jack, I appreciate your trying to help, but I don't think it's going to work out," Tony tells Jack over the phone as he pours some beer into his Cubs mug.**_

_**"Tony, I know it's a few steps down from your old job, but..."**_

_**"A few steps? Jack, anyone who speaks limited English and knows how to type could do this job."**_

_**"It's just a start. If you show them that you're capable you can work your way back up."**_

_**"How? Without a security clearance there's not much room for upward mobility."**_

_**"Give me a few more months to get settled in my job here. If you're working somewhere where you need a clearance I can ask Secretary Heller to grant you a waiver to the Smith Amendment."**_

_**"Yeah, right. Like anyone's ever going to grant a security clearance to a convicted traitor. I appreciate your trying, but there's no point."**_

_**"You're right, Tony, there's no point," Jack says sarcastically, his voice starting to sound annoyed. "You can't start out exactly where you left off in your career so why bother at all, right? Why not just sit around all day drinking? That'll solve all your problems, right?"**_

_**"Don't lecture me, Jack," Tony snaps. "Don't you think I get enough of that from my wife?"**_

_**"Damn it, Tony, she's trying to help. She's worried about you and so am I."**_

_**"Well, you don't need to, alright? I don't need your pity."**_

_**"It's not pity, Tony. I know what you're going through...I've been there."**_

_**"No you haven't, Jack," Tony snaps angrily. "I know you've dealt with a lot the past few years but you have no idea what it feels like to stand up in court and have a judge publicly declare that you're a traitor to this country. You have no idea what it's like to be in prison and treated like you're no different than the criminals you've spent years working to put away. You don't know what it's like to have your father tell you that you're dead to him, alright? So stop acting like you know what it's like because you don't."**_

_**"My father hasn't spoken to me in years either, Tony," Jack begins.**_

* * *

_"And I can't remember exactly what he said after that," Tony tells Audrey. "Something about a business dispute but I had already had a few beers and the rest of the conversation is a little blurry," he admits, his voice choking up and his tearful eyes full of shame. He looks away as he struggles to hold it together. Audrey senses that he needs a minute and just gives him a sympathetic look._

_"I'm sorry...just give me a sec," he says as tears begin to fall. "I wish I could remember what Jack said but it's a time in my life I've worked hard to block out. The way I treated Michelle...the time I wasted drinking instead of being with her..." His voice trails off as he starts to cry. _

_Audrey grips his arm sympathetically._

_"Now you'd give anything to have that time back, right?" she says empathetically as she hands him a tissue from her purse._

_"Yeah," Tony says softly, knowing that she can relate better than just about anyone._

_"Look, Tony, I know what it's like to live with regret like that. This probably won't make you feel much better, but at least Michelle died knowing how much you loved her," Audrey says gently. "For the past year and a half I thought Jack had died believing that I hated him."_

_"No he didn't. After a few weeks he knew you didn't hate him," Tony assures her._

_"You told him what I said to you that day at CTU?"_

_"Yeah. Given the circumstances I couldn't exactly ask your permission, but I figured you'd want him to know."_

_"Yeah, you made the right call."_

_"I wanted to tell you that Jack was still alive...it was hard to see you beat yourself up and have to keep it from you. But Jack insisted that we keep it a secret for your own protection...after what happened to Michelle, I can see that he was right."_

_"Yeah...at least now I know that he didn't die believing that I hated him, and I had the chance to apologize for the way I treated him. But I never got the chance..." her voice chokes up a little. "When he went to take the so-called phone call, he told me he loved me, and I hesitated for just a second and I'm not sure why...before I could respond he was gone...now I'm scared I'm never going to get the chance."_

_"You're going to get that chance," Tony tells her, his voice suddenly full of determination. "I can't promise that we're going to be successful but I promise you I'm going to do everything in my power to figure out where he is and get him back."_

* * *

Jack sighs wistfully, a tear forming in his eye when Tony tells him the last part about Audrey never getting to say "I love you" back to him. For the past four years he has struggled to live with his decision to let her go and to try to move on, but he's had a hard time pushing her out of his head, and hearing Tony tell the story of what she went through to get him out of China is reopening the floodgates of emotions he had tried to push away.

Tony senses Jack's anguish and considers asking him why he didn't stay with Audrey after China, but decides to hold his tongue for now. Instead, he waits for a cue from Jack about whether or not he should continue the story. After a minute, Jack gives him his cue.

"Why did she go to China?"Jack asks softly.


	5. Chapter 5

_Sorry it took so long to update. This part takes place right after the last chapter. The day's events have ended, Jack and Tony and crew have saved the world yet again, and now following Bill's suggestion, Jack took Tony to a restaurant to get some breakfast and to give him a chance to tell Jack everything he's been up to for the past five years before he turns himself in. For those of you who may have missed it, the first chapter was completely rewritten after episode 7 aired, so you may want to take a quick look back at that if you haven't already._

* * *

"The source we were using came through, or at least so we thought," Tony explains. "He got us pictures that confirmed that you had been taken, although they didn't 100% confirm who the captor was. She gave the pictures to her father without telling him how she got them, and he brought them to President Gardner in hopes of convincing him to negotiate with the Chinese. But the Chinese at that point denied that they had you, and Audrey and I figured out pretty quickly that the government wasn't going to seriously challenge them on it. Keep in mind that this was all taking place in the context of negotiations about a major trade agreement with the Chinese. Secretary Heller tried to lobby the president to make your release part of the negotiations, but Gardner said the negotiations were too delicate as it was and he was afraid bringing you into it would upset the apple cart."

Jack nods, thinking back to four years ago when he accused Secretary Heller of not trying hard enough to get him out of China. Now he's not sure if that accusation was fair or not.

"As you probably know, there are powerful business interests who depend on cheap labor and supplies from China, and those companies have a ton of influence in Washington," Tony continues. "Members of Congress depend on them for campaign contributions, and the executive branch has that revolving door of people who lobby for corporate interests and then go work in the Administration for a few years, and then go back to lobbying the people they used to work with. Former Administration officials can look forward to a cushy lobbying job after their time working for the government as long as they don't do anything while they're in there that their clients consider harmful to their interests. So there was a lot of incentive for people who worked for the government to keep your capture hush-hush."

Jack scoffs, irritated but not terribly surprised.

* * *

**FLASHBACK: 8 MONTHS AFTER DAY 5**

_Audrey picks up Tony in the parking garage at Union Station after a frustrating day of lobbying members of Congress about Jack._

_"Hey, how'd it go?" he asks._

_She sighs with frustration._

_"Same old, same old. I've been lobbying for weeks at DOD, in the Administration, and on the Hill and it's not working. I thought once I had proof that he was captured help would be forthcoming, but everyone's stonewalling and giving me excuses about how it would jeopardize the trade agreement or interfere with negotiations over currency manipulation...one senator even said that he was worried that if Jack were released he would talk to the media and give the human rights groups and protectionists a talking point in what he said was their trumped up charges of human rights abuses in China."_

_"What? Somebody said that?" Tony asks with disbelief._

_"I wish I were kidding," she says._

* * *

"She should have just told them how much I hate talking to the press," Jack says ruefully.

"She did, believe me," Tony tells him. "But that wasn't the point. The point was, Audrey was figuring out what I already knew...that the government was useless and couldn't be trusted."

* * *

**RESUME FLASHBACK**

_"Did you ask if he was concerned that if Jack weren't released he might eventually talk to the Chinese and be forced to give up critical national security information?" Tony asks. "Isn't that a greater concern than whether he'd talk to the media, which I'm pretty sure he wouldn't?"_

_"One would think," Audrey grumbles, the exasperation showing in her voice. "But that's not how things work around here. I don't know why I'm surprisedâ€¦I've been around politicians my whole life, and I know how things work around in this town. But these people have never seemed so petty and self-absorbed and removed from reality as they do right now...and the people at DOD are no better. I'm starting to understand why it was such a culture shock for Jack when he started working here."_

_"I can just imagine," Tony says. "I told you before, when I heard Jack had taken a desk job in Washington I was pretty surprised. Frankly, I'm amazed he lasted almost a year."_

_"Well, it wasn't exactly a seemless transition," Audrey admits. "He was always stepping on people's toes and offending senior bureaucrats by being overly blunt, to put it politely. No matter how many times I tried to explain to him that budget decisions are based as much on Congressional politics as on the needs of the military he wouldn't accept it and he was always getting into it with Congressional staff and agency heads. One time my father almost had to fire him after he went off during an intelligence briefing and basically told the Undersecretary for Intelligence that he wasn't doing his job."_

_Tony shakes his head. "Frankly, I'm just surprised he kept his hands off the guy," he jokes. Audrey giggles, and Tony can't help chuckling a little too. It's the first time either of them has laughed in months and it feels good in spite of everything._

_"You probably have much crazier stories than I do," Audrey realizes._

* * *

"I can just imagine what you told her," Jack says.

"Not everything...just the highlights. I told her about the time you killed Goren and brought his head to Weld in a briefcase, and the time you shot Mason in the leg with a trank, attacked a Secret Service agent, broke a prisoner out of jail and carjacked a woman at gunpoint all in the span of 12 hours. Oh, and the time when you had me on crutches because I pushed back on one of your cockamamie schemes."

"Great. Thanks a lot, Tony," Jack says, half annoyed and half amused.

"Anytime," Tony says with a grin.

Jack rolls his eyes.

"So after you were done having fun at my expense, what happened?" he asks.

* * *

**RESUME FLASHBACK**

_Audrey pulls in to the attached garage of her large townhouse in Rosslyn._

_"Hold on a sec...let me just go in and make sure I closed all the blinds before I left for work today."_

_Tony nods and waits in the garage until she yells for him to come in._

_"Wow...you have a nice house," he remarks. Audrey gets a little self-conscious._

_"Thanks. I was pretty close to selling it before I went out to LA for the summit...Paul and I bought it a few years ago thinking we might start a family, but it's too big for one person and I wanted to start fresh."_

_"So how come you didn't sell it?" Tony asks. He nods when she takes a casserole out of the fridge and asks if he wants some._

_"I don't know...for one thing, after everything that happened, it was the last thing on my mind. I stayed out in LA for a couple weeks working with CTU on the debrief from the nerve gas attacks and to try to help them figure out what happened to Jack, and by the time I came back the prospective buyer had found another place. Plus, now that I know Jack's alive, suddenly I didn't want to sell it..."_

_"You're thinking that if he comes back you can start a family together?"_

_"Maybe...I guess. I know it's a long shot that we'll get him back and who knows if things will even be the same between us. can't even imagine what they're doing to him," she says, getting teary-eyed just thinking about it. "But I can't help but hold out hope, as slim as it may be. When Jack disappeared the first time and I thought he was dead a few weeks later I thought I might be pregnant...when I found out I wasn't I should have been relieved...it would have been embarassing for my father and I didn't know how to raise a child all by myself. But instead of feeling relief I just felt empty..."_

_"You found yourself wishing Jack had left you with someone to remember him by," Tony says understandingly._

_"Something like that, yeah," Audrey says wistfully._

_"Michelle and I were trying to get pregnant," Tony tells her, his voice soft and laden with grief. "We had been having trouble, but the morning she was killed she told me she thought she might be...she just woke up with a good feeling about it."_

_

* * *

_

__

**_FLASH FURTHER BACK: 6 AM, 1 HOUR BEFORE DAY 5 BEGAN _**

**_"Wake up, sleepyhead," Michelle says to Tony as she sits down on the bed and starts messing with his hair._**

**_Tony opens his eyes slowly and looks at the clock._**

**_"Why are you up so early?" he asks groggily, noticing that her hair is wet._**

**_"I woke up early and couldn't fall back asleep. I don't know why but I just have a good feeling."_**

**_"Are you late?" Tony asks hopefully._**

**_"No, not yet…a couple more days. But I just have a really good feeling about it."_**

**_"Oh yeah?" he says playfully. "Well, instead of just going on a hunch, let's try to increase the odds right now," he suggests with a grin._**

**_"Tony I already showered," Michelle protests, knowing he's going to win the argument._**

**_"We've got time. Our meeting's not until 9:30. Now get over here…that's an order," he demands, pretending to be back in CTU mode._**

**_"And if I don't follow it?" she teases._**

**_"Then the consequences will be severe," he says in a sinister tone, and proceeds to demonstrate the severe consequences by tackling her to the bed and tickling her._**

**_"Tony, stop!" she shrieks._**

**_"Still want to try to disobey my orders?" he asks with mock harshness._**

**_"No," she says with a smile._**

**_"Come here," Tony whispers as he pulls her toward him and starts kissing her._**

**_

* * *

_**

_"We were going to check after our meeting with a client," he tells Audrey. "It could have turned out to be just a hunch, but now I'll never know."_

__

"I'm so sorry, Tony," Audrey says in a tone that shows that she not only feels sorry for him but understands exactly what he's going through.

"Thank you," he says softly.

* * *

Jack sighs sadly. It's painful for him to hear about Audrey wanting to start a family with him and think about what might have been. The fact that he still feels responsible for Michelle's death and the fact that she and Tony never had the chance to start a family make it that much worse.

Tony can tell how hard it is for Jack to hear him relay the story.

"Look, Jack, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to make you feel worse...I just thought you'd want to know," he says.

"It's alright. Just go on," Jack says quietly, his voice clearly showing his emotion.

Tony nods, and then surprises Jack with what he says next.

"The hardest thing has been knowing for the past four years that if it wasn't for me you and Audrey might have had another chance," Tony says.

"What are you talking about?" Jack asks, confused. "I thought you were helping her look for me."

"I was, Jack. I was trying to help, but I did something really stupid, and I let her walk right into a trap because I screwed up," Tony admits, unable to look at Jack as he waits for a reaction.

* * *

**_How did Tony lead Audrey into a trap, and will Jack be able to forgive Tony when he finds out the truth? Stay tuned...if you have a chance to review feedback is always appreciated._**


	6. Chapter 6

"Damn it, Tony, what the hell happened?" Jack asks angrily.

"Like I said before, we decided that lobbying the Administration and members of Congress wasn't working, so we realized we were going to have to be a little more creative."

"What do you mean by creative?" Jack asks pointedly.

* * *

**_RESUME FLASHBACK (8 MONTHS AFTER DAY 5)_**

_Audrey leads Tony into her home office. "Everything I have related to Jack's abduction is in here," she says, pulling up a folder on her computer. "Go ahead and look through it while I go check on the casserole."_

_Tony nods and starts looking through what she has. He glances at the door to make sure she is gone before inserting a flash drive. He copies a file that he noticed on her desktop called "passwords" to the drive and then puts it away quickly._

_She comes back a minute later._

_"Thanks," he says as she hands him a bowl of food and a glass of soda._

_"I don't think there's much there that's useful...I know that there are people at DOD who know where Jack is but they've found a way to keep me from finding it. Maybe you'll see something I'm missing."_

_"What's this?" Tony asks, bringing up a list of names._

_"A list of members of Congress who are on record opposing renewal of the trade agreement. And here's some information I got from Amnesty Global on Chinese prisons...if we can find out where Jack is we can try to match it to one of these profiles."_

_"I'm not sure I follow..." Tony says, confused._

_"You were right with what you said the other night on the phone. Gardner's not going to do anything about Jack unless we force him to. Given the fact that he's trying to get this trade deal through Congress and move past all the Logan scandals so he can win the election, the last thing in the world he wants is for Jack's capture to become public."_

_"Do you think it matters? You've been talking to people about it all day and you've been met with nothing but indifference."_

_"That's because I've been talking to jaded Washington insiders. If the American people knew that the Chinese had kidnapped a federal agent who had saved millions of lives on US soil and that the president knew about it and turned a blind eye, I have to believe that they'd be as outraged as we are about it. If we do this right and work with the people on this list and the labor unions and human rights groups that oppose this treaty we can help turn public opinion against the treaty and create public pressure for the president to do something to get Jack out of there. Much as I hate the idea of letting him be used as a football for politicians with their own agenda, at this point I think it's our best option."_

_"Listen, I can help you get together whatever you need to give to the media or to the people you mentioned, but if you're going to take this public I've got to get out of here first."_

_"I'm not going to the media yet. I need to find more concrete evidence, and I need to find out where Jack's being held. Then I can use what I have to try to persuade the president to do something before taking it public."_

_"You're going to blackmail the president?" Tony asks incredulously._

_"I prefer to think of it as playing politics," Audrey says slyly._

_"Alright. Obviously I don't have as much experience dealing with politicians and the media as you do, but if you think it'll work I'm in. Just tell me what you need me to do."_

_"I need to figure out where Jack is being held, and I'm hoping to find some evidence that people from Logan's Administration who are still in their jobs today were complicit in his capture. I have a list of names here of people I think might have been involved."_

_"Alright, I'll hack into some databases and see what I can find."_

_Audrey opens up another file on her computer, which shows a picture of Cheng Zi. "This guy, Cheng Zi, was the head of security for the consulate in Los Angeles when Jack went in there. It looks like he left that job around the same time Jack was abducted. I think he's the one who came and questioned us, but I can't remember for sure...given everything that had happened the whole thing is a little bit of a blur to me," she admits._

_"Yeah, well, who could blame you? But I'm pretty sure you're right," Tony says. He notices Audrey getting teary-eyed._

_"Hey, what's wrong?" he asks gently._

_"Nothing, I'm sorry...it's just hard remembering that night. Curtis asked me to talk to the Chinese to help protect Jack's cover, but it was right after Paul died and I was so angry with Jack at the time. I keep replaying the conversation and wondering if I had been more convincing when I talked to Cheng..."_

_"It wouldn't have made a difference," Tony says firmly. "The Chinese had pictures of one of our agents from their surveillance camera. They were going to figure it out no matter what you or anyone else said."_

_"Yeah, I know," Audrey says in a tone that doesn't sound too convinced. "I just had no idea something like this could happen..."_

_"Yeah, well, that makes two of us. I'm the one who ran point on the operation to extract Lee Jong from the Chinese consulate...Jack asked me to keep everyone else out of the loop to help keep it off books. I'm not aware of any mistakes on our end but I keep running the whole thing through my head over and over and over, wondering if there's something I could have done differently. Something that would have prevented the consul from being killed, and prevented Jack from having to fake his own death and put all of us in danger...sometimes I just wish I hadn't agreed to go along with it in the first place. Of course, if he hadn't gone in and gotten Lee Jong we might all be dead, but sometimes I can't help but wonder if we could have found some other way."_

* * *

"You and me both," Jack says to Tony.

"Yeah, I can imagine," Tony says, realizing that for as many times as he's replayed that day wondering what they could have done differently Jack has suffered a thousand times worse than he has for the decisions they made that day.

"Frankly, if we could do that day over there are a lot of things I would have done differently," Jack admits. "Sometimes I wish I had just gone with the Secret Service agent and not gotten you and Michelle and Chloe involved."

"Please, Jack, for both of our sakes...don't go there," Tony says with a whiff of irritation. He has replayed the conversation where Jack asked for his help escaping a thousand times since Michelle was killed, wondering if he would have agreed had he known what the consequences would be, and he honestly doesn't know. As much as part of him wants to go back in time and tell Jack to leave him and Michelle out of it, part of him knows that if he did have a chance to do it over he'd do the same thing all over again. That part of him knows that he would not have been able to turn his back on a friend in need no matter how much he wanted to.

Jack sighs. Tony knows what Jack is thinking, so he eventually answers the unspoken question.

"Look, Jack, I know what you're wondering, and the answer is, I honestly don't know. If I had it to do over again I don't know what I would have done. But for what it's worth, I want you to know that I don't blame you for Michelle's death."

"That makes one of us, but I appreciate that," Jack says regretfully.

An awkward silence hangs over them for a moment, until Tony continues with his story.

"Anyways, Audrey and I figured if we could figure out where Cheng had been reassigned we could use that to figure out where you were. So I told her I needed to go dark for a while and see what I could find on my own. I got back in touch with my contact and he was able to get me in touch with someone who worked at the Chinese consulate who would give me some information about where Cheng took you."

"In exchange for what?" Jack asks. Tony looks away, not eager to answer Jack's question.

"In exchange for what, Tony?" Jack repeats, his tone sharper the second time.

"In exchange for structural information about CTU," he admits.

"You mean how to get inside the building?"

"Yeah," Tony says quietly, hanging his head.

"Damn it, Tony. Do you remember Milo Pressman?" Jack asks angrily. Tony nods. "He died as a result of Chinese hostiles getting into CTU."

Tony sighs, obviously pained by this news, but then he becomes indignant. "Look, Jack, I said before that I'm not proud of the things I did. But the cold hard truth is, our government had left you for dead, and Audrey and I were the only ones who cared enough to keep looking. So we can have a debate about methods all you want, but the bottom line is, after we realized the government wasn't going to do anything unless we forced them to, we had to decide whether to give up or do whatever it takes. And we decided to do whatever it takes, alright?"

"Fine, keep going," Jack says, exasperated.

"Using what I remembered I drew a schematic of CTU for my contact at the LA Consulate, and in return, he gave me enough information that enabled us to figure out where you were being held. We also got more evidence to suggest what we'd suspected all along, that your capture wasn't initiated by the Chinese government in Beijing."

"What are you talking about?" Jack asks.

"You mean they never told you?" Tony asks incredulously.

"Told me what?"

"Your capture was initiated by people within our own government, people who were behind President Logan's oil grab scheme. Cheng Zi was acting outside the authority of the Chinese government...he was paid off by these oil tycoons connected to President Logan. I had suspected that all along and I was right. What I didn't realize was that members of your own family were involved."

* * *

_I hope this isn't dragging on too much...in the next chapter, you will find out why Audrey went to China, why Tony feels responsible for her capture, and what Jack's father and brother had to do with it. So stay tuned, and please review!_


	7. Chapter 7

_Sorry for the delay...I ran into a little bit of writer's block. This chapter is a little long, so if you're short on time the first flashback in the chapter is not that important...I mainly put it in there for my fellow Jack/Audrey fans. If you're not a J/A shipper you can skip that part. Enjoy and please review!_

* * *

"Hold on a second. You're telling me my father and brother had something to do with my capture?" Jack asks incredulously.

"Yeah…I thought you knew that. The problem was, I didn't know that until it was too late."

"What are you talking about?"

"I told you before that one of my sources for information was this guy who worked for your father, someone who made it seem as if he was doing the same thing we were doing for the same reason. But it turns out that their objective wasn't to get you out of there…they were working with Cheng and the Chinese military the whole time. After the Chinese realized you weren't going to talk, they used your brother and father to help lure Audrey into going over there so they could capture her and use her against you. Unfortunately, I didn't know any of that until after you were released…I trusted this guy Liddy and through him I arranged for Audrey to meet with someone who worked at the US embassy in Beijing who claimed to have information that would prove our government's complicity in your capture."

"Damn it, Tony. Didn't it ever occur to you how dangerous that might be?"

"Of course it did, Jack. I told her that if she went over there it was possible that the Chinese would try to get to her and use her as leverage against you, but she was determined to go anyway. I was planning on going with her, so that I could help her get the information and be there to protect her if anything happened. But that got screwed up due to some twists and turns in the presidential election."

"I don't understand. What does the presidential election have to do with this?"

"Basically, we both felt that if Wayne Palmer won the election, he would be more likely to do something about negotiating for your freedom than Gardner had been. So keeping me hidden was important given the history."

"I'm not sure I follow," Jack says.

"The politics get a little complicated here, and believe me, Audrey had to explain some of this three times before I understood it."

Jack chuckles, thinking about all the times when she tried in vain to educate him about Washington politics and all the games and nonsense involved in getting things done in Washington.

* * *

**_FLASHBACK: 2 MONTHS BEFORE SEASON 4_**

_Audrey is sitting at the computer in her home office, catching up on some e-mails. Jack is sitting on the couch reading a little handy guide she put together for him of the politicians and other VIP's who will be at the Marine Corps ball the following night and what Jack should say to each of them._

_After a minute, Jack puts the paper aside and gets up and walks over to her._

_"Jack, you cannot possibly have read that little guide I put together for you that fast," Audrey says skeptically._

_"I told you, I'm a fast reader," Jack insists._

_"Mmm-hmmm. Okay, then I'm going to give you a little pop quiz and see how much you actually digested," she says._

_"What is this, junior high?" Jack asks with feigned outrage._

_"No, this is 'I'm trying to help you keep your job because you've gotten in trouble too many times this week and you need to make a good impression tomorrow night," Audrey replies. "Come on…I'll make it fun for you," she says mischeviously._

_"Mmmm…I like the sound of that," Jack says slyly as she climbs into his lap._

_"Good. Who's the speaker of the House?" she asks._

_"Don Ashton," Jack answers triumphantly._

_"Very good. What party is he?" she asks._

_"What difference does that make?" Jack protests. As good as he is at digesting and remembering details quickly, the party ID in parentheses next to the names wasn't something he considered important enough to memorize._

_"In this town? All the difference in the world…haven't you learned that by now?" Audrey says, shaking her head. "Come on, you've got a 50-50 chance here."_

_"Okay. Your father doesn't seem to think too highly of him, so I'm guessing he's a Democrat," Jack says._

_"There are plenty of Republicans my dad doesn't think too highly of either," Audrey says with a grin. "But luckily, you're correct…Speaker Ashton is a Democrat."_

_In keeping with her promise to make it fun for Jack, Audrey rewards his correct answer by removing her sweater. Jack perks up._

_"Okay…I think I like this game," he admits. He starts to explore with his lips but she leans away._

_"Not so fast, buster brown. We're not done with this." Jack makes an adorable pouty face. "Who's the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee?"_

_"Greg Mitchell?" Jack guesses._

_"Nope, sorry, he's the chair of House Armed Services," Audrey says with a grin._

_"Oh come on!" Jack protests. "Shouldn't I at least get partial credit?"_

_"Nope. No such thing," Audrey replies. She reaches for her shirt and puts it back on, further frustrating Jack._

_"What, so every time I get something wrong you put something back on? That's just mean."_

_"Sorry, but I've got to give you some motivation to actually learn this stuff," she says._

_"You're not very nice," Jack pouts. Audrey grins wickedly._

_"Who are the three senators on Armed Services who may pose a problem with the DOD budget?" she asks._

_Jack thinks for a minute, then reaches over for the cheat sheet she put together for him. "Hey…no cheating!" she protests. She tries to stop him but she's no match for his quick movements._

_"Rosenberg, Meyer, and Steele," he says triumphantly after glancing at the sheet._

_"That doesn't count…you cheated!" she protests, laughing as she tries to grab the sheet away from him. He holds it out of her reach, forcing her to tackle him to the counch to try to retrieve it._

_"Yes I did, but I still got the right answer and this is still coming off," Jack says with a grin, pulling Audrey's sweater over her head as she climbs over him trying to grab the cheat sheet._

_"Uh uh…give me my sweater back!" she insists. Jack tosses the sweater to the other side of the room and prevents her from going to retrieve it. When she tries to get up he starts tickling her, making her squeal until she eventually gives in._

_"Alright, alright, you win," she agrees breathlessly._

_"Next question?" Jack prompts, giving her a triumphant grin._

* * *

"Only three times? You must have been a better student of DC politics and bullshit than I was," Jack says to Tony.

"Yeah, I guess. I'm still a little hazy on some of this, but basically, right before when we were scheduled to leave for China, the presidential election took another crazy twist as revelations came out that evidence had been covered up related to Wayne Palmer's involvement in Sherry Palmer's death," Tony explains. "Once I told Audrey about my attempt to take out Logan, she felt strongly that I couldn't risk exposing myself by coming with her to China, and the fact that there was already another scandal around Palmer made it that much more imperative for me to stay hidden."

* * *

**_ FLASHBACK: 5 MONTHS BEFORE DAY 6; 5 WEEKS BEFORE THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION_**

_Audrey picks up Tony in the underground parking garage of the Safeway on Wilson Blvd., one of their usual meeting spots, to go over the plans for their trip to China. Tony notices that she looks like she has been crying._

_"Are you alright? What's wrong?" he asks._

_"Nothing, I'm fine," she says, wiping her eyes._

_"You sure?" Tony prods._

_"Yeah, just had a fight with my dad…nothing important."_

_"He's upset because he doesn't want you to do this?" Tony asks._

_"Yeah, basically. He doesn't know exactly what I'm doing over there but whatever it is he thinks it's dangerous, both personally and geopolitically."_

_"I know it's not the response you're looking for, but there's a chance he could be right," Tony says._

_"I know that," she says, exasperated. "But it's a chance I have to take. Enough people have already tried to talk me out of it, believe me," she says._

_"You do know that if Jack were here he'd be one of them right?" Tony asks._

_"Of course I know that. I know he wouldn't want me to do this but if the tables were turned we both know he'd do it in a heartbeat," she insists._

_"Well, I can't argue with that," Tony agrees._

_"Listen, my father hired a private security detail to go with me but he probably knows that I'll be trying to get around them when necessary. I know you've been trying to keep a low profile, but I think he would feel a lot better if he knew you were going with me to China. You saved my life a few years ago and he trusts you. If I tell him I think I can trust him to keep it a secret."_

_"No, uh uh," Tony insists. "You can't tell him I'm alive. You can't tell anyone."_

_Audrey sighs. "I know you said you're better off helping me if people think you're dead so you could work outside the government, but if you get discovered I'll back you up. I'll tell them that I let you take my CAC card and I can probably get you off for whatever else you did to try to find Jack. Whatever you did I was an accomplice to, and because of who my father is the president's not going to want it to become public. If they prosecute you they'll have to admit that they knew where Jack was and didn't do anything about it, and you'd testify that members of our government were complicit in Jack's capture. So there's every incentive to look the other way."_

_Tony sighs. "It's not that simple, Audrey," he says._

_"What are you talking about?" she asks._

_"Look, it's better if you don't know the details, alright?"_

_"You keep saying that…please, just tell me, what are you hiding?"_

_Tony hesitates. "Please, just tell me the truth," she urges. Tony contemplates for a minute, then decides it's time to be upfront with her.  
_

_"Alright. The truth is, I'm not just playing dead because I want to help find Jack."_

_"What do you mean?" she asks nervously._

_Tony takes a deep breath. "Before I came to you, I shot and killed a Secret Service agent and tried to assassinate an ex-president," he admits._

_Audrey looks stunned for a moment, but then realizes what he's talking about._

_"You mean the sniper who tried to take out Logan after he was sentenced to house arrest…that was you?" she asks. She seems surprised but not completely shocked._

_"Yeah," Tony says softly, looking down and then up to gauge her reaction. "I was angry…a few years ago I was sentenced to 20 years in jail for treason for protecting my wife. I couldn't believe that after everything Logan had done to me and to this country that his punishment was being confined to a luxury ranch. The guys I was working with tried to get the Secret Service agent out of the way but he turned around at the wrong moment…honestly, I wonder if my aim wasn't as good as usual because I was nervous. I found out later that the agent I shot had a wife who had just given birth to a baby girl," he tells her, the guilt apparent in his eyes._

_Audrey sighs, not knowing what to say or even what to think._

_"Secret Service investigated the incident extensively, and they questioned a lot of people who had been involved with or affected by Logan's insane scheme to provide nerve gas to terrorists," Tony continues. "The only reason I never came up as a suspect is because everyone thinks I'm dead. If anyone knew I was alive I'd instantly become the prime suspect."_

_"Tony, I…I don't know what to say," Audrey says after a moment._

_"I don't blame you," he responds. "I'm sorry for not telling you this earlier, but I didn't want to put you in a position of harboring a fugitive. If you want to turn me in that's your call."_

_Audrey sighs. "I'm not going to turn you in," she says firmly. "I don't judge you for what you did…as much as I hate to admit it, there's a part of me that wishes you had succeeded. But we need to make sure you stay hidden, at least until after the election."_

_"I have stayed hidden," Tony insists. "Why do you think I always have you pick me up at underground garages in case someone happens to be monitoring via satellite for whatever reason? I live in a house that's leased to someone else, I don't have a car, and I have no credit cards or bank accounts. I have a fake ID but I try to avoid using it because I don't want to take any chances."_

_"This is crazy...how do you live like this? How do you support yourself even?"_

_"Day labor jobs, mostly, and occasionally computer jobs...only stuff that pays cash. There are lots of immigrants in my neighborhood, and these guys come around early in the morning and pick people up for day labor jobs...they're used to dealing under the table because a lot of the guys they pick up are illegal immigrants. I just pretend I don't speak English and it's pretty easy to blend in."_

_"Oh my g-d...I had no idea you were living like that. When you said you needed to stay 'dead' I figured you just meant you were laying low. I figured your family at least knew you were still alive."_

_"Nope...my brothers don't know...nobody knows except you and a few other people who helped me get inside Logan's compound."_

_"Alright, here's what we should do," Audrey says, taking charge. "I'm going to give you some money, and I need you to lay super-low until after the election. Just stay in your house as much as possible...after the election I'll talk to the Attorney General. I've known him since I was a baby and I think I can convince him to cut you a deal."_

_"Uh, look, I appreciate your wanting to help, but I'm fine. I figured after China I'd just disappear again...or maybe I'd even stay there if we're successful at getting the president to get Jack released. I'm pretty sure they don't have an extradition treaty."_

_"That's not going to work...if you get discovered before the election it could ruin the whole plan."_

_"I don't understand...what does me staying hidden have to do with the election?"_

_Audrey sighs, trying to figure out how to explain it. "Do you remember the Willie Horton ads?" she asks._

_"That sounds vaguely familiar...why?" Tony asks, confused._

_"Willie Horton was a convicted felon in Massachusetts who committed another murder while on furlough when Michael Dukakis was governor. When Dukakis ran for president in 1988 they used the fact that this guy had committed a crime after Dukakis let him out of prison on a furlough against him…it helped sink his campaign."_

_"And you're worried that because Wayne Palmer was the White House chief of staff when David Palmer let me out of jail it'll hurt his chances of winning if it comes out what I did after getting out?"_

_"Yeah, exactly. You know as well as I do that David Palmer took a lot of heat for giving you a pardon…even though you probably deserved it more than anyone else who got one, when people hear the word 'treason' it makes it seem so controversial. I may be sympathetic about your attempt to take out Logan but remember that most Americans don't know the full extent of what he did. The media whitewashed Logan's crimes, including his role in David Palmer's assassination, and they'll portray what you did as a cold-blooded murder of a Secret Service agent whose wife just had a baby."_

_"Alright, I get it. I'll make sure I lay low until we leave for China."_

_"You don't understand. Trying to board a plane is way too risky. If you try to buy a ticket with cash you'll get flagged by TSA for extra verification at security...using a fake ID to get on a plane is too risky. And I can't get you on my plane without prompting a lot of questions. I'm going to have to go to China by myself."_

_"No. That's too dangerous…no way. I'm not letting you go by yourself," Tony insists._

_"Tony, it's not your decision," Audrey says firmly but without any hostility._

_"I have the information about the contact at the Embassy and I'm not giving it to you until we get there," Tony insists._

_"Tony, come on, why are you doing this?" she protests._

_"Because I promised Jack I would protect you, not put you in danger," Tony says forcefully._

_"What? When? I thought Jack doesn't even know you're alive."_

_"He doesn't. But when he disappeared the first time, he was afraid someone might come after you or Kim thinking you knew something about where he was," Tony explains, his voice less harsh than before. "So I promised him I would keep an eye out for you. I don't want to break that promise by enabling you to put yourself in danger."_

_Audrey sighs. "I appreciate your wanting to protect me, and I can't thank you enough for all you've done to help me get this far. But I'll have a security detail with me, and I'll be fine. If the Chinese want to use me against Jack there's nothing you can do about it that they can't. I know you'd feel better if you were there, but it's just too risky right now. We need Wayne Palmer to at least have a chance to win this election if the plan is going to work, and he cannot afford another scandal. Have you seen this?" she asks, grabbing a newspaper from the back seat. The headline reads "New Questions Arise About Wayne Palmer's Involvement in Mysterious Deaths of Brother's Ex-Wife and Campaign Contributors."_

_"Yeah, I saw that…"_

_"Some of it's been an open secret among political insiders for a while, but the stuff about Wayne Palmer being at Sherry's house right before she was murdered is new…it looks like some evidence may have been covered up, although from what my dad told me at the time I don't think he was the one who killed her. But the whole thing looks pretty shady, and if it weren't for the fact that Gardner has been struggling to break out of the shadow of the Logan scandals the election would be over."_

_"So me turning up could be the death knell in Palmer's campaign and make whatever leverage you have against Gardner after this trip useless," Tony concludes._

_"Yeah," Audrey says regretfully._

_Tony sighs, not sure what to do._

_"Alright, we'll have to figure something else out. I've got an old buddy from the Marines, Sergio Ramirez, who works for a defense contractor in Arlington, or at least he did last time I talked to him, which was about a year ago. He travels to that part of the world for business fairly often, so maybe I can get him to go with you to China."_

_"Does he know you're alive?"_

_"No, but I trust him. I need your help getting in touch with him though...just call him and make up something work-related and ask him to keep it discrete. Then you can tell him I sent you and set up a way for the three of us to meet."_

_"Okay, I can do that," Audrey agrees._

_"How the hell is this just coming out now?" Tony asks, looking at the newspaper._

_"My dad said that Keeler made a deal with David Palmer when he was running for president to bury it if Palmer agreed not to seek another term, to let him go out with his dignity and reputation in tact. Republicans have known about this for a while, but they saved it for now to inflict maximum damage to Wayne Palmer in the election…it's what we call an October Surprise."_

_Tony looks at the article again. "It's funny…this all happened the day I was arrested. Frankly, I'm amazed CTU didn't find any evidence of any of it when they went through all the archived satellite frames and cell phone recordings to do the post-incident reports on the Cordilla virus."_

* * *

Tony notices an odd look on Jack's face when he recalls that last bit.

"What is it?" he asks Jack, confused.

"CTU did find evidence of Wayne Palmer sneaking into Sherry's house before she was murdered. Nobody ever found it because Chloe destroyed it."

"Why would she do that?" Tony asks.

"Because I asked her to," Jack admits.

"What? Why?" Tony asks, shocked.

"Because I knew that there had been a deal to bury it if President Palmer agreed not to run for reelection, and I didn't want to interfere with that and help his political opponents drag his name through the mud."

"Come on, Jack, you don't work that way. You don't cover things up to protect politicians even if they're your friends," Tony insists.

He is surprised and a little disheartened. No matter how much he has grown to hate the government, he has always seen Jack as a force for good and for the truth in a government full of corruption and deceit. He might resent the hell out of Jack for continuing to serve the government in spite of what they've done to him. But as much as he does not want to admit it he still looks up to Jack and wishes that he shared Jack's ability to stick to his principles and keep doing the right thing no matter what the personal cost. Hearing Jack admit to compromising those principles is surprising and disillusioning, though he knows he has no right to judge.

Jack doesn't say anything, but the look on his face makes it clear that it's something he's not proud of.

"Did President Palmer ask you to help cover it up?" Tony asks incredulously.

"No, of course not," Jack says. "He probably would have been furious if he knew I did it. But I knew that he was a good man who had been dragged into a bad situation and I thought he deserved the right to leave office with dignity."

Tony nods, but somehow he doesn't fully buy it. Something seems off about Jack's explanation. Tony gets a sinking feeling as he realizes that Jack might be withholding part of the story for his benefit.

"There's something else, isn't there?" he asks. Jack doesn't answer, his face neither confirming nor denying, which tells Tony all he needs to know. "Did this have something to do with me? Was there some sort of a quid pro quo?" he asks.

"Not exactly," Jack responds.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"As you know, investigating something like that was outside CTU's jurisdiction. The proper procedure was to forward the evidence over to District, and Michelle and I didn't want to give Brad Hammond any leverage against the President given the circumstances."

"You mean because of me?" Tony asks.

"Yeah," Jack says in a tone that somehow makes Tony feel even worse. He knows that compromising his principles is no small thing for Jack, and the fact that he was willing to do it for him makes him feel even guiltier than he already did about everything he has done.

* * *

_Hopefully you're still with me...I know it was a long chapter. I had initially written a flashback for the part above, where Jack makes a rare decision to compromise and cover up evidence to protect his friends. I cut it because this chapter was too long as is, but I'm thinking of posting it as a separate chapter or another story if people are interested. Hopefully the next chapter of this will be up pretty soon, so stay tuned! Reviews are very much appreciated._


	8. ,,,,EXTENDED FLASHBACK: The Compromise

_This is an extended version of what Jack told Tony in the last chapter about why he had Chloe destroy evidence after season 3 about Wayne Palmer being at Sherry Palmer's house when she was murdered. I cut it out of the last chapter because the chapter was so long, but I thought it might be interesting on its own. It was inspired in part by the scene in season 1 where Jack gave Nina that little speech (long before he knew she was dirty) about how "you can look the other way once and it's no big deal, and it's not, except that it makes it easier to compromise the next time, and pretty soon you don't even know you're compromising because you think that's the way things are done." But what if Jack compromised, just once, to protect the president and help a friend? It's not directly related, but it somehow seems especially interesting in light of the exchanges Jack had with President Taylor last night, so I figured it was worth posting. Plus, it gave me a chance to put Michelle and Chloe in the story. I hope you like it, and I will post more of the actual story soon._

* * *

**FLASHBACK: 3 WEEKS AFTER SEASON 3**

Jack is in his office at CTU looking over some files when Chloe knocks on his door.

"It's open," he says. She enters tentatively.

"What's going on?" he asks. "Did you get me the information I asked for?"

"Yeah, it's all right here," she says, handing him a folder.

"Thanks. Was there anything else?" he asks. Chloe hesitates.

"Chloe, what is it?" Jack presses.

Chloe closes the door, then speaks quietly.

"This morning I was going through the satellite archives for the report on the Cordilla virus containment, and I found something I didn't expect to find."

"What was it?" Jack asks probingly.

"Pictures of Wayne Palmer getting out of a car outside Sherry Palmer's house about a half hour before she was murdered."

"That doesn't make sense. They've already identified the woman responsible for her murder. She killed Sherrie and then killed herself. Fingerprints on the weapon confirmed it."

"Maybe. I'm not saying Wayne Palmer killed her, but the fact that he was there doesn't really look that good."

"Hasn't this already been investigated?" Jack asks.

"Not this...I checked the files, and there's nothing about Wayne Palmer being in her house when it happened."

"Alright, run it by Michelle and then send it over to Division."

"That's just it, Jack. I showed it to her this morning and she told me not to forward it to Division."

"Did she say why?" Jack asks.

"She just said she wanted to look it over more first, but that doesn't make sense. This falls outside our mandate...people at Division are the ones who are supposed to look into stuff like this."

"Did Michelle ask you to find this evidence, or did you stumble on it on your own?"

"I stumbled on it on my own...I was looking for something completely unrelated," Chloe answers.

"Alright, I'll talk to Michelle," Jack agrees.

"Jack, what do you think she's trying to do? You don't think she's trying to..."

"I don't know," Jack cuts her off. "I said I'll talk to her."

Chloe nods. "Chloe?" Jack says as she turns to leave.

"Yeah?"

"You did the right thing by coming to me with this," he tells her.

"Uh, thanks, I guess," Chloe says awkwardly.

Jack dials Michelle's extension.

"Michelle, can you come up here for a minute? I need to talk to you."

"Yeah, I'll be right up," Michelle says. She knocks on his door a minute later.

"You wanted to see me?"

"Yeah. Close the door," Jack instructs, motioning for her to have a seat.

"What's going on?" she asks.

"Chloe said you told her to hold off on sending information about Wayne Palmer over to Division," Jack says suspiciously.

Michelle looks flustered. "I...I find it hard to believe Wayne Palmer killed Sherry..."

"He didn't," Jack says firmly, his tone suggesting that he knows more about what actually happened than he is letting on. "I know that for a fact. But that doesn't explain why you told Chloe to hold off on sending the satellite images she found to Division."

"I just wanted to look it over first, make sure it hadn't been doctored. This is the kind of thing that can get manipulated by people with a political agenda."

Jack gives her a look that says "I'm not buying it."

"Uh huh. So you took a look and then sent it to Division yourself?" he asks probingly.

Michelle sighs, knowing she's not going to fool him. "No, not yet," she admits. "I thought maybe we should hold onto it until you talked to the President."

Jack sighs. "Michelle, I know what you're thinking, but I can't go along with it. I know I promised you I would do everything I can, but I respect the President too much to try to blackmail him or negotiate some sort of quid pro quo even if I thought it would work, which I don't. If anything I think suggesting it would have the opposite effect."

"I'm not asking you to blackmail him, Jack. You don't even have to mention it to him at all. I just don't want to forward what Chloe found to Division."

"Why not?" Jack demands. Michelle doesn't answer right away.

"Michelle, has anyone contacted you about this? If anyone from DOJ offered you an ultimatum I need to let the President know," Jack says.

She shakes her head. "No, nothing like that. I don't think anyone knows this exists...Chloe just found it when she was working on a post-incident report on the virus."

"Then why did you tell Chloe to hold off on sending it? You know that it's outside our jurisdiction...all we're supposed to do with something like this is pass it along."

Michelle sighs. "I know that. But I don't trust Brad Hammond," she admits. "You know as well as I do that he's had the knives out for Tony since we broke protocol to help you prove that the Cyprus recordings were forged three years ago. I don't want him to get his hands on this."

"You're afraid that if we send this over to Division he'll use it to try to prevent President Palmer from giving Tony a pardon?"

Michelle nods. "I wouldn't put it past him," she says.

"Neither would I," Jack agrees reluctantly. "Maybe we should send it to the FBI instead."

"If we do that, Division will have our heads for going around them. Besides, we don't know who can be trusted there. There are plenty of political opportunists in Washington who would be eager to leak this to the press or use it to try to bargain with the president or his staff."

"So what, you just want to destroy the evidence?"

"If we did that, then nobody can use it as blackmail, for this or anything else," Michelle reasons.

Jack shakes his head. "It's wrong, Michelle," he says firmly. "It's wrong and you know it. And we both know that if Tony were here he would say the same thing."

"I'm not so sure it is," Michelle argues, which takes Jack by surprise. He looks at her curiously.

"You're not so sure that destroying evidence is wrong?" Jack asks with disbelief.

"Not in this case, no," she replies. "From what I can tell, it looks like President Palmer made a deal with Senator Keeler not to seek reelection if they buried something that was embarrassing to the president. Since he's not running for re-election I'm not sure it's our place to interfere with that."

"It's not our job to interfere or go along with any kind of political bargaining. That's for people higher up to decide. We found information and it's our duty to pass it on to the proper authorities," Jack says simply.

"Even if we have good reason to believe it'll be misused?" Michelle challenges, making Jack think for a minute.

"Look, I know you don't like covering things up and I don't either," she continues. "And I'd be lying if I said that my opinion about how to handle this weren't influenced by concerns about how this could affect Tony. I admit that I'm afraid that it will look like we helped create one political shitstorm while we're asking President Palmer to do something that could create another one, and maybe that's clouding my judgment. But there's another good reason to do this."

"What's that?" Jack asks.

"To protect the President," she says.

"No," Jack insists. "I know President Palmer well enough to know that the last thing he would want me to do was cover up evidence on his behalf."

"I don't disagree," Michelle says. "But we both know that Hammond's not the only one who might try to use this as leverage against the president. If we forward this to Division, it will get passed on to the FBI, DOJ, and probably members of Congress, and it will provide ammunition for anyone who wants something from the president or wants to embarrass him."

She hesitates for a moment before making her next point, knowing Jack is not going to like what she has to say. "Look, I'll admit that when Chloe first brought this to my attention, it crossed my mind that maybe we could use it to help Tony. I know it's wrong, but I can't deny that I thought about it. If we pass it on, think about how many more people like me will handle it and get the opportunity to use it to try to influence the president for all kinds of things. And even if President Palmer has enough integrity not to give in, he has staff who might be inclined to make deals to try to protect him. If we delete this now, we cut off any opportunity for it to be used as blackmail or a bargaining chip."

Jack sighs. He knows what she is proposing is dead wrong but he finds it surprisingly difficult to argue with her logic.

"Look, I know that you respect the president too much to try to use this to negotiate with him about Tony, and I understand that," Michelle says. "But I don't think everyone else who handles this evidence will have as much integrity as you do. Given how much you respect the president, do you really want to help his political opponents blackmail him or drag his legacy through the mud?"

Jack contemplates for a moment, suddenly conflicted.

"You know I don't like covering things up, even for the President," Jack says as he wrestles with the decision.

"I know," Michelle says solemnly, her tone showing that she recognizes how much she is asking of him.

"Besides Chloe, who else knows about this?" Jack asks.

"Nobody. I asked her to keep this on the DL for now."

Jack sighs, torn between his almost unflappable integrity and his desire to help one friend and protect another.

"I'll talk to Chloe," he says after a minute, still clearly uncomfortable with what he is agreeing to do.

"Thank you," she says gratefully.

A few minutes later, Jack walks down to the floor and approaches Chloe's desk.

"Chloe, can I talk to you for a minute?" he asks discreetly.

"Yeah, what's going on?" she asks.

"I need you to check something in Tech 1. Walk with me," he instructs. She follows him suspiciously. When they are outside Tech 1 away from everyone else, he leans in and speaks quietly.

"How hard would it be for you to delete the satellite images you found on Wayne Palmer and fill the time code with something else so it's not obvious?"

"Technically not too hard, but it's completely illegal, not to mention wrong."

"I know that," Jack acknowledges.

"This isn't a joke? You're really asking me to cover up evidence in a murder investigation?" Chloe asks with disbelief.

"The murder has already been investigated. Wayne Palmer didn't kill Sherry."

"How can you be sure of that?" she asks.

"Because, I'm sure. I know more about the case than you do and I can't get into details, but I know that's not what happened," he insists.

Chloe sighs and studies Jack for a minute, still a little shocked that he is asking her to do this and confused about why.

"Look, I get why Michelle wants to do this and I feel sorry for her too, okay? But I can't believe you're asking me to do something so illegal. I know Tony's your friend but still," she says, perplexed.

"This is not about Tony," Jack says firmly. "This is about protecting the President from the possibility of blackmail."

"What are you talking about?" Chloe asks, bewildered.

"Something like this can get into the wrong hands and be used by politicians, bureaucrats, even groups that have interests against the US government to try to influence the President. I don't want to enable anyone to put him in that position, nor do I want anyone at Division or DOJ to be able to use this to give Michelle an ultimatum."

"I'm still not comfortable with this..." Chloe says nervously.

"I know. To tell you the truth, I'm not completely comfortable with it either. But given the circumstances I'm less comfortable with forwarding it to Division, and I don't want anyone to find the evidence later and come after you for holding onto it. I know what I'm asking you to do is against protocol, but you're not covering up a murder, and if anyone finds out you were acting on my orders," Jack promises.

Chloe contemplates, looking very uncomfortable (remember, this is before the days when Jack roping her into doing something against protocol was an hourly occurrence).

"Chloe, please. You know me...you know I don't like to do things like this, and I wouldn't ask you to do something like this if I didn't think it was necessary. Please, as a favor to me," he asks.

Chloe sighs, exasperated. "Fine. But for the record, I'm against this."

"Understood. Thank you," Jack says appreciatively.

He walks back up to his office and sinks down into his chair, still struggling with the dilemma. He thinks what he just did was the right decision, and he could even find a way to argue that it was in the best interests of the country not to have something like this floating around to use against the president. But he also knows that he put loyalty to his friends above integrity. It may not be as bad as taking a cut of the money recovered from a drug bust or looking the other way to advance his own career, but he knows that in some ways he is just as guilty as the people he busted for taking bribes a few months before Teri was murdered: he had compromised, once.

* * *

_I know this was a bit of a diversion from the story, but hope you found it interesting. Hopefully I will have more of the regular story soon. Reviews are always appreciated!_


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